Measure for Measure
by Warlord1096
Summary: When the universe bends you over the table to have a go, you close your eyes and hope that better times will come soon. Not if you're a magically cursed Ranma Saotome, though. You take what it gives, and give back as good as you get. Measure for measure.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: When the universe bends you over the table to have a go, you close your eyes and hope that better times will come soon. Not if you're a magically cursed Ranma Saotome, though. You take what it gives, and give back as good as you get. Measure for measure. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any related works or merchandise. This is merely an attempt to produce quality fan fiction for the enjoyment of the masses.**

**Foreword: This ****features an angry Ranma, who behaves like he has, for once, met the horror that is puberty. I'm sure Ranma readers are male, or have brothers or male friends. You can imagine what happens when a young man, who suddenly doesn't know his own strength, is quick to anger and has uncontrollable hormones, will react to the Jusenkyo curse. This is my attempt to capture that.**

* * *

_'Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good... no  
Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good  
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move'_

_-When the Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin_

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**Measure for Measure: A fic by Warlord1096**

**Prologue**

Sheets of rain pounded down mercilessly on the streets of Nerima, forcing the inhabitants of the ward to desert the outdoors and retreat into the safety of their homes. Overhead, the clouds rumbled and thunder roared as the summer storm raged through the area.

The radio stations predicted at least another 48 hours of this terrible rainstorm, advising people not to venture outside for that period, and to keep first aid kits and torches at hand. The power had come and gone several times, but most of the electronic appliances across the city had been unplugged anyway to safeguard both them and their users.

The world seemed to have been consumed by grey; colour and life had been drained under the overwhelming force of the storm. It was the stuff of horror stories, with the rain lashing against the windows like thousands of spirits trying to claw their way in, or the condensation forming weird and unnatural shapes on the glass.

The howling of the wind was pierced by a gigantic groan. In the park, the ancient oak tree that had been planted decades ago shifted, unable to repel the rampant currents anymore. With a sound like a titan crashing to the earth, it gave to the unstoppable force and tilted over, sending tremors out along the ground as the freak storm claimed another victim.

The short girl in red restrained a scream of fury as her face was suddenly blasted by a flurry of leaves and twigs. Her anger, which had been simmering within her ever since the fateful trip to the cursed springs, threatened to boil over and flow out with a fury which would equal the cataclysm she was currently trapped in.

She squinted to her left to make out the form of her companion, a hulking dual chromed panda who looked the very picture of misery as it slogged through the downpour. Its fur was wet and giving off an awful stink; the musky smell of the earth was the only thing Ranma was grateful about in this entire hurricane.

Together, the two unlikely companions picked their way through the storm, unmoved by the flashing lightning or the screaming gale. A miserable growl from the panda and a quick hand movement was all that told the girl that they were nearing the destination that they'd been journeying towards for the past ten days. She had no idea how the panda was able to make out its surroundings when she was unable to see her own hand before her face, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The panda, who doubled as her father when he was in his human form, hadn't told her what she was about to face. She knew that their training trip had concluded with the final, disastrous trip to China – she was now considered a journeyman in the art the two of them shared. However, she had an unnerving feeling that it was to do with her original, male form, the one she reverted to when she wasn't under the effects of the terrible curse.

Again she felt the swooping sensation in her stomach, which told her that something unpleasant was over the horizon. She sneaked another glance at her wretched father, but his poker face was as strong as ever.

The girl sniffed and turned away from the panda, twitching slightly as one of the leaves fell from her hair onto her face. With a sharp exhalation, it twisted off her face and was carried off by the wind, leaving her free to ponder the situation undisturbed.

The universe was conspiring against her again, she could feel it in her teenaged soul. For a second, she considered venting all her frustration, her anger, her _hatred_ on her companion, but shrugged it off a moment later. She'd had enough of that for a while, but that didn't mean that the emotions were going away.

If the universe wanted to give her lemons, she was ready to take them. And then she'd crush it in her palm, shove it down her adversary's throat and piss on the cosmos as the universe went to hell.

Saotome Ranma had had _enough,_ and he was sure of one thing.

He was going to take his pound of flesh from the world even if he destroyed himself in the process.

Measure. For. Measure.

* * *

Tendo Soun and his three daughters sat huddled around the table in the living room, breathing deeply in the aroma of the herbal tea that his eldest had whipped up. The scented liquid seemed to be the only thing that kept the melancholy atmosphere at bay, sending shooting warmth down his nerves instead of the damnable chill that the weather had instituted.

The single candle standing at the centre of the table cast strange and menacing shadows on the wall, which seemed to loom over its inhabitants like a vengeful shadow. The master of the Tendo school shook his head to drive away his delusions, turning his thoughts instead to the arrival of his old training partner.

Genma, it seemed, would be delayed by a few days thanks to this freak weather. While he was eager to see the schools of Anything Goes joined once and for all, he was a patient man, and could wait a few more days to see it happen.

His thoughts wandered over to the enigmatic Ranma, the mysterious boy whom one of his daughters were slated to marry. He surveyed each of them in turn – would the boy prefer the calm and kind Kasumi, the clever and quick Nabiki, or the passionate and headstrong Akane?

Privately, he believed that it was his youngest who would have to uphold their part of the deal, considering that she was the one who had taken the practising of their art the furthest amongst his offspring. Nabiki had never been interested in the martials arts to begin with, much to his initial displeasure, and Kasumi had become much more interested in the healing of pain than the inflicting of it within a few years.

He turned a critical eye on his youngest, who had a faraway look in her eye as she stared blankly at the shadows dancing on the opposite wall. Judging from the angry spark in her eyes, she was thinking about the horde of boys who would undoubtedly challenge her with increased vigour once school resumed, trying to make up for three days of inactivity.

Perhaps Ranma would alleviate that problem for her -?

A loud bang on the door made him look up sharply, and his three daughters jump. For a second, he dismissed it as the wind, but then it was repeated twice more in quick succession.

His mind immediately jumped to the most obvious conclusion, however strange it seemed.

_Surely not?_ He could not deny that he could feel some excitement seeping into his old bones at the thought of meeting his friend once more.

He got up and motioned for his daughters to remain seated, walking over and sliding the door open himself.

Almost unconsciously, he stumbled back at the sight that greeted him. Framed in the doorway were two massive, shadowy creatures with an aura of desolation and despair pervading the air around them.

"D- demon," Akane stuttered, trying to edge away from the two spectres as best she could.

A flash of lightning ripped through the air, illuminating their obscure guests. In a single flash of brilliance, the four of them saw a giant animal and a tiny redhead hoisting a backpack that was at least four times her size.

"A panda?" Soun was wondering if Kasumi had mixed any illicit substances into the tea, and the suspicion only intensified when the creature held up a signpost which read, '_Hello, old friend.' _

"_Genma?!"_

With a nod and a short growl of confirmation, the pair walked into the room, leaving Soun standing there to pick his jaw up from the floor. Idly, he noticed the trail of mud and water they left behind them as they walked in and set down their pack, thinking that Kasumi would have a lot of cleaning on her hands.

The trio of female Tendos stared at the newcomers, unable to digest what their eyes were currently telling them. Their father had, of course, warned them about the impending arrangement and the arrival of Saotome Ranma, none of which they were very pleased about. But now it seemed that there was a way out of their predicament, considering that –

"You're a girl?" Nabiki asked, running her eyes up and down the redhead's obviously female form. Ranma bristled, but remained silent.

"And you're a _panda?_" Soun asked again, as if it still hadn't penetrated his brain.

This drew a sigh from the redhead, who looked around the room before her eyes fell on the kettle sitting on the table. She strode forward smartly – a bit too smartly for someone who'd just barged into their home, Akane thought – and picked it up before emptying the contents over the heads of the panda and herself in quick succession.

In an instant, a man and a boy stood where the duo had been, dressed in ragged, muddied clothes which were still dripping water onto the hardwood floor.

"It's been two long, my friend," Genma greeted the eldest Tendo solemnly, who had finally stopped goggling and was now looking delighted at seeing both his friend and his son. "I would hug you, but –"

No explanation was needed; the two men chose to clasp hands tightly instead. Ranma, for his part, watched silently but made no move to comment.

"How?" Nabiki had gathered her thoughts enough to ask the question that was on everybody's minds. The Tendos recoiled a bit as the temperature in the room suddenly dropped a few degrees and an ominous air gathered around the dark-haired young man. Genma remained unmoved, on the other hand, having been exposed to his son's fledgling ki several times over the past few days.

Soun hid how impressed he was that the boy had managed to connect with his life force at such a young age, but Kasumi interrupted him before he could comment on it.

"Perhaps our guests would like to take a bath and have a change of clothes, first?" Ranma fixed her with an inscrutable gaze, as if she was trying to judge the girl's character.

After a long moment, the boy finally deigned to speak.

"That's kind of you, but I'll pass." Kasumi blinked, but didn't act overtly surprised or offended. "Let's just get to the reason we're here."

The three girls were stunned, not to mention caught off guard at his sudden insistence to finalize the contract between the houses immediately. Akane began to wind up a head of steam at the boy's audacity, but Ranma's next words stopped her short.

"Let's move this to the dojo." He cracked his knuckles with a grin. "After I destroy you and take your sign, you can offer me food and board. And then I'll think about returning it to you."

Stupefaction would be a mild word to describe the look on the faces of the Tendos. As one, they turned their faces to Genma, who froze for a moment before letting out a shaky laugh and rubbing the back of his head.

"Ah, you see," he said, fumbling for the right words. Ranma, too, had realized that something was wrong and was now looking at his father with narrowed eyes. "I, well, I haven't really gotten down to telling Ranma –"

A window blew open, finally relenting to the force of the storm. Ranma and his father, who stood nearest to it, were soaked in a matter of seconds. Whatever confession Genma had been made was lost as Soun wrestled to get the window shut, and the panda seized an opportunity to heft another sign. _'Don't mind me, I'm just a silly panda.'_

Ranma was now projecting his...her ki so much that the three girls were shying away from her in fear. The young woman raised her fists and turned on the now cowering panda, about to demand exactly what was going on.

_'You've been brought here to join the two schools, boy. Pick any one of Soun's daughter as your wife, and we'll set about on getting you married immediately.' _

Akane wondered whether the panda had some sort of secret technique that allowed him to erase and write on the signboards within a second, because she hadn't caught Genma in the act.

Ranma, for her part, had gone stock still. The boy-turned-girl wasn't moving a muscle, and everybody in the room breathed a sigh of relief when her ki vanished completely. Nabiki, ever the smart one in the family, nevertheless moved her two sisters with her to the side of the room furthest from Ranma.

The subject of their apprehension seemed to have become a stone statue. Hours seemed to pass, before she curled his fists and spoke again.

"Which way to the bathroom?" The question was so unexpected that everybody in the room took some time to compute it.

"Down the corridor, third door on your right," Kasumi finally answered, gathering her faculties and once more appearing just as unfazed as ever. "There's a firewood stove, I'll just get it working –"

"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need the furo, a bath will do."

'_But I wanted a soak.'_

The girl twitched a bit at the panda's new sign. _"You,_" he spoke with such venom that even Soun flinched, "are coming with me. And you better have a good explanation for me."

The panda was about to raise another sign, but only managed to let out a choke when his shape-changing son wrapped his hand around the neck and began pulling him towards the bathroom. The panda managed to get a paw onto their pack at the last moment and carried it with him as he was dragged out of view by Ranma.

The four Tendo's watched as one, but made no move to act upon the woebegone expression of pleading on the panda's face.

Things were about to get very interesting.

Their suspicions were confirmed five minutes later when the entire house shook on its foundations and an agonised, animalistic howl echoed through the house, followed by a roar of rage.

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**A/N: I'm an idiot, uploading this with so many uncompleted works. But I'm an idiot with writer's block, and this is a way of release. Like I've mentioned, this is an attempt to write quality ff, if such a thing exists. I've tried to up my writing with every story of mine, and I hope you'll leave a review stating what you like/dislike in my first foray into Ranma 1/2.  
**

**As for the pairings...there will be sex and violence, and perhaps even the two together, but there will be no established relationship. That makes it General for now, I suppose. While I'm told I can write a bit of romance, action is what I like writing best. And character development is what I want to hone. So this should be well rounded as long as it lasts.  
**

**Also, I dislike padding fics with long author's notes now. This is my first and final one, and nothing else shall exceed a sentence or two. Quick question, though. I'm sure both you and I are tired of canon rehashes. Would you like new scenarios with old characters, or the same stuff with a different spin. Either way, I think I'll mix the two.  
**

**Please leave a review on your way out! **


	2. Chapter 2

_Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will.  
Its seat is in the heart, and it must  
be an inseparable part of our being._

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**Measure for Measure: A Fic by Warlord1096**

**Chapter 1: Meet the (In?)Fallible Ranma!**

The boy and his father stood solemnly before the seated Tendos as the house shook and shivered around them.

"So, Jusenkyo," Soun ventured, trying to sum up the unbelievable story that he'd just been told. Had the man not seen several wonders in his own time as a martial artist, he would have dismissed the entire thing as a tall tale.

"Jusenkyo," Genma agreed, making the word sound like a curse. His gaze slid to his son, who was sitting to his left, and wondered if his son would like to make his feelings on _that_ matter clear again.

But Ranma was still quiet, gazing at the three of them with his arms crossed. Kasumi had the strangest feeling, like he was sizing the three of them up individually.

The youngest Tendo, however, wasn't as patient as her sister, despite the fact that Kasumi was the person she strove to emulate in all walks of life. On top of that, Akane hadn't forgotten how casually Ranma had challenged their dojo, as if it had been a foregone conclusion that he would defeat her.

Akane may have been a sweet and kind person most of the time, but she also prided herself on being the best martial artist in the area. Her hubris, not that she would recognize it as such, was fed every day when she massacred every last one of her prospective suitors, before making short work of the most insistent – Kuno Tatewaki. Just thinking of that delusional fool set Akane's teeth on edge.

"Well?" the young girl finally asked, unable to take the anticipation any longer, "don't you have anything to say, or are you going to keep ogling us, _pervert?!"_

Nabiki winced at the impression her sister was making on the boy, but Ranma seemed to remain absolutely indifferent. She realized that he must have heard far worse if he'd indeed spent the last decade travelling around the world with his father and learning the martial arts. Akane herself was a fairly talented martial artist, but if her suspicions were correct, Ranma was on a different level altogether.

"So, you're the one I'll hafta fight, then." Ranma's words had a rough edge to them, no more than could be expected from a boy who'd never had a formal education while he was growing up in the wild. "Shall we make it to the dojo?"

"In this weather?!" Akane was unimpressed, thinking exactly how uncivilized this buffoon was. "Are you mad? If you haven't noticed, there's no electricity!"

"And that's going to stop a martial artist?" Ranma wasn't looking at Akane, but scuffing his nails on the bottom of his tunic instead. His stance was casual, as if he felt that the girl was unworthy of his time, but Soun could notice the underlying tension in his bearing. The boy was winding up his opponent on purpose, and Soun couldn't even complain, considering that it was well within the teachings of Anything Goes.

Akane was struck dumb by that, her mouth falling open in a perfect 'o'. "No, you're damn right it isn't!" she replied hotly after she regained her bearings, "Let's take it to the dojo, _now!_"

"Yeah, I'll go wait for ya to change," Ranma jabbed a thumb at the frock Akane was currently wearing. "Wouldn't wanna dirty your pretty little dress."

That tore it for the Tendo. She'd been resenting her father's decision ever since she'd heard of it, and it was just one addition to the many straws on the back of her equanimity. Ranma's cool dismissal of her was the final straw, and before anybody could intervene, she'd pulled a hammer out of nowhere and charged the boy.

Ranma, for his part, was finally impressed. The girl had been sitting down hunched – _hunched – _and she allowed her breathing to move out of control when she had been irritated. That was obviously an act, and even though it was an act he'd seen before, he commended her on her foresight.

That train of thought screeched to a damning halt when she attacked him in a manner that left her chest and lower body completely open to attack. He was impressed by the fact that she'd pulled a weapon out of nowhere, and guessed that it was under some sort of enchantment.

_Is this for real? _Feeling his carefully masked annoyance rise that little bit higher, he smoothly sidestepped the female juggernaut and stuck out a leg.

Akane went crashing to the floor and barely restrained a whimper of pain. Her face now exemplifying why she was named such, she reached for her hammer, only to find it missing.

Ranma ignored the fuming girl and instead looked over the weapon in his hand, quickly spotting a row of kanji inscribed into the handle. He was about to take a closer look, but thought the better of it for the moment.

"Yeah, let's wait till we're in the dojo to bring it, sugar." His mild tone of address coupled with the mocking endearment he'd picked up only served to make her angrier, but he could make out the mild apprehension flickering in her eyes.

"Fine!" She snatched the hammer out of the air as he tossed it to her and stomped her way upstairs. While she was getting ready, Ranma turned bemusedly to Soun.

"I thought you had only three daughters?" the dark haired boy asked the man, like he was dealing with some problem he couldn't figure out.

"Of course I do!" Soun didn't like what the boy was trying to imply. "Just what are you trying to say, you punk?!"

Ranma seemed to realize how his statement could be misconstrued and raised his hands in supplication. "Jeez, calm down, old man. These two," he jerked his head towards Kasumi and Nabiki, "are obviously not fighters. So who am I supposed to join the schools with?"

Soun looked positively affronted, but his comeback was thankfully interrupted by Akane's return. The blue haired girl had obviously caught the tail end of Ranma's words and was none too pleased about it.

"You'll be joining nothing with no one when I'm done with you, you idiot!" Her fists shook as she raised them to eye-level in warning, "Just who do you think you are, trying to barge your way into our home?"

"Hey, I didn't ask for this! I'd just as soon be on my way –"

"All right, all right, why don't we just take this to the dojo?" Soun tried to calm his daughter down, dreading what would happen if Ranma made good on his words. Surely the boy would be enthused when he saw how passionate Akane was to the art, and decide that she was the one he wanted as a bride?

The Tendo-Saotome clans jointly made their way to the dojo, Kasumi wisely picked up a few extra candles. When she was done lighting and placing them in the corners, the non-combatants wisely retreated a few steps to avoid getting in the way.

"Now, steer clear of the corners. We don't want to burn down the dojo...again," Soun finished, making Akane stumble a bit in her purposeful walk across the room.

"Sheesh, just because it happened by accident one time doesn't mean it'll happen again," she muttered, taking her stance and trying to analyse her opponents.

Across the room, Ranma was doing the same. Since the girl could end up engaged to him if all went wrong, he took a few seconds to appreciate her features as well. In the soft glow of the candelight, with the wash of golden rays across her face, she looked almost...cute?

Something fluttered in Ranma's stomach, and he hastily adjusted his concentration onto the fight again.

Her stance and grounding were quite decent, and Ranma could see that she favoured strength over speed from the way she grounded herself. He could spot a few openings he could take immediate advantage of to end the fight, but decided that they were too obvious for the heir to the other school to keep.

A sneaking suspicion, born of the years of misery he'd been subjected to by his father, grew in his mind. What if the entire surprise attack had been a ruse to catch him off-balance or get him to lower his guard?

Others might have laughed at Ranma's overtly mistrustful mind, but he knew that it wasn't paranoia if the world was really out to get him. He'd seen more contrived plots in his time, after all.

Akane, for her part, only grew more incensed when her father called a start to the fight and Ranma made no move to get into position. He stood there with his arms loosely held by his side, standing there slightly hunched looking all for the world like a textbook teenager.

Well, if he was going to take it so easy, she wasn't about to complain. Taking into account at least two dozen openings he had put on display, she started out with one of her favourites – a flying kick straight to the temple.

With an ease born of years of practice, she bounded forward and launched herself into the air, angling her foot into an unforgiving vehicle of vengeance.

Her foot contacted with thin air, and for a second, she was caught off-kilter when Ranma disappeared from her field of view. Senses kicking into overdrive, she thrust backward with a double elbow jab, only to find Ranma to her left. A fist thrust sideways to make short work of him found him before her again, but her front kick proved just as useless.

And so the battle continued, with Akane committing to ineffective attacks and Ranma dodging them with ease. He noticed that she'd started out with near-perfect form but was getting sloppier as each successive dodge made her angrier and angrier.

Sweat was sliding down Akane's face and her breathing was growing harsher, but Ranma was looking like he was doing nothing more strenuous than taking a walk in the park. Akane gave a roar of rage and summoned her trusty mallet, giving it a swing that would take off the head of a wild boar. Her headband itched around her forehead and the perspiration was getting in her eye, but for Akane, the fight had boiled down to one objective – to get that bored, uninterested look off Ranma's face.

Ranma, for his part, was growing more and more perplexed. Any vestiges of cuteness had been wiped off Akane's face, and she made for a truly fearsome sight with her face a rictus of hatred and her mallet swinging madly.

Ranma was reminded of his first, abortive attempts at Karate against his father...when he was four going on five, and Pops had finally stopped teaching him philosophy and drills and exercises and given him the first taste of real fighting.

He turned an incredulous face towards his father, not even bothering to give the charging girl his full attention. His father looked just as displeased as Ranma felt, even though he was struggling to hide it. Genma may have masqueraded as an overweight old man, but the art was his life and to watch this mockery did not endear him to the young Tendo. Nevertheless, he shook his head slightly and warned the boy not to forgo his honour and attack such a weak opponent.

Ranma grimaced but did not go against his father's wishes. As much as he wanted to finish this farce immediately, he kept dodging about instead as Akane grew more and more exerted. He felt a slight bit of sympathy for her, knowing from experience how humiliating it was to be unable to land a single hit on his opponent, but she was his age! Ranma loved his school of art, and to see it reduced to this fake was an insult to his entire lifestyle.

Finally, having enough and noticing that the girl was at the end of her tether, he moved smoothly into her guard, tilted his head to the right to dodge a swing of her weapon, and jabbed her straight in the solar plexus.

Akane dropped the weapon with a sharp gasp as what felt like a small motorcycle was driven into her gut. She fell to the floor and began panicking when the air in her chest seemed to solidify and make it impossible to take in anymore. Daddy had never hit her so hard, and there was a darkness creeping into her vision, and she couldn't _breathe _–

Ranma watched dispassionately as Akane blacked out before his eyes and Soun rushed forward to tend to his daughter. The man was trembling in anger, but Ranma had reached the end of his patience and crossed it long ago.

"What the hell d'ya think you're playing at?" His voice was low and cold, and Soun felt a cold trickle of foreboding slither down his spine. "Why the _hell_ should I want to join the Saotome school to...to _this?_" he indicated the fallen girl with a sweep of his hand, failing to find words to describe what he was feeling.

Soun snarled in anger, suddenly seeing another, older woman in his arms. Akane's face blurred into that of his wife, lying pale and unresponsive in his arms.

And suddenly, the candles in the room were flickering as all the shadows seemed to gather above Soun's hand. Frost climbed up the windows with the sound of a thousand misshapen claws trying to force their way in, and Ranma swore that the shadows on their wall arched their back and stretched in a decidedly feline manner.

And then Pops was there, a firm grasp on Soun's wrist. Ranma noticed for the first time the razor-sharp naginata that had appeared in the Tendo patriarch's hand, glinting in the soft candlelight.

The two elders remained frozen in that position, their eyes boring into one another. The tension in the room was so thick it would take an army of sword-wielding samurai to cut it.

"Oh my," the person who everyone would have least expected to intervene did so, and all the heads in the room swivelled around to see Kasumi looking like a deathmatch wasn't about to go down in her house. "It seems that there's been an error. Ranma-san, I apologize. It is I who will be your opponent."

Soun was so flabbergasted that he dropped the entire act of intimidation, and his actions were mirrored by Genma, who had some inkling about each girl's prowess thanks to his correspondence with his friend. Nabiki was trying to judge if her sister had finally gone off the deep end, while Ranma was just gazing at her stonily.

"Kasumi, have you gone insane?" Soun hissed, "you haven't trained –"

He fell silent as Kasumi, dressed as always in her homemaker garb, walked daintily past him to take Akane's position opposite Ranma.

"I'm ready, father." His eldest daughter had finally cracked under the strain, Soun realized, thinking mournfully that he should have seen all the signs earlier.

"Kasumi, please consider –" He entreated with the daughter whom he would never confess was his favourite, and had been ever since he'd first held her in the hospital nearly two decades ago.

"Father," there was a hint of steel in Kasumi's voice that he'd not heard in aeons. "Trust me."

This was obviously a dream, Soun decided. He'd fallen asleep in the storm, and had dreamt of his friends arriving in impossible conditions, and it had all gone downhill from there. He should have realized it the moment he'd opened the door to find a panda and its daughter.

"All right," Soun nodded, deciding that no harm could come from this. Nabiki shouted in protestation of her father's delusion, but the elder man ignored her completely. The two elder Tendo sisters stared at each other for a moment instead, before Kasumi tilted her head to the left and curved her eyes into a radiant smile.

Ranma ignored Soun and Genma dragging Akane off the floor and to the sidelines. If there had been a fluttering before, it seemed that there was now a swarm of butterflies in his gut. While the girl was obviously elder to him, even he could see that she was a rare beauty. Too bad she was the obvious motherly Yamato Nadeshiko, and his ticket out of this mess.

Ranma returned to his starting position and resumed his original, loose stance. To his surprise, Kasumi made no move to change hers, standing with her hands clasped and her head bowed. The little smile never left her face.

"Begin!" Soun shouted, and Ranma tensed ever so slightly in anticipation of an attack.

It never came.

Kasumi continued to stand there with that placid expression on her face, looking exactly like a model housewife showcased across Japanese television.

Ranma, on the other hand, was growing increasingly antsy in anticipation of the attack that would never come. For the first time, he paid attention to the fight when he realized that Kasumi's breathing had stayed even through the entire charade with Akane, and her version of the poker face hadn't slipped once.

_This girl knows something I don't._ For the first time in a long while, Ranma felt slightly unsettled in a fight.

"Why ain't you attacking?" he asked roughly, trying to figure out what his opponents plan was.

Kasumi only smiled wider, making him ever more discomfited.

"There is no dishonour in accepting that you cannot attack a stronger foe, Ranma-san," she replied, her voice low, melodious and so damnably _calm._ "Why don't you attack instead?"

There was no challenge in her voice, no hostility. Ranma was so shocked that he took a step back, unable to come to terms with her quiet acceptance.

_What am I going to do?_ And for once, Saotome Ranma, who prided himself on his ability to adapt to any battle situation, was unable to find a proper answer.

The two of them stood there like puppets as seconds, minutes and then half an hour passed. Ranma couldn't remember when he'd broken out in cold sweat, or when Akane had begun to stir, but Kasumi was just as unflinching as ever.

Genma could see the warning signs; his boy was nearing the end of his patience. He couldn't help but admire the girl's intelligence, this _was_ Anything Goes, after all, and she was doing nothing illegal.

"Boy!" he stepped forward, but it was too late. Ranma had charged forward with a fearsome yell, launching him into the air and pulling his fist back. The entire Tendo family surged forward, but Kasumi never moved an inch from her pose.

_Crack! _The floor of the dojo split as Ranma landed next to her feet and brought down the full force of his punch. His opponent had not moved, not stirred – she was respiring just as evenly as before.

The Tendos came to a halt, Soun only barely managing to stop Akane from going on a rampage again.

"Goddamn you," Ranma was trembling, his fists shaking, "goddamn you. Defend yourself."

"But I can't, Ranma," Kasumi's reply seemed to make the boy only angrier, in a harsh mockery of his fight with Akane. "You're simply too strong."

The boy's shoulders suddenly stiffened, but then all the fight seemed to leave him. He slumped forward, blowing all the air out of his lungs in a sharp exhale.

"Fine. Fine," he repeated, "you win." Akane and Nabiki gasped in shock, but the two males looked on solemnly. "Goddamn you, but you win."

The two of them made a strange sight – Kasumi standing there with her hands clasped to her chest and a small curve to her lips, not a hint of smugness about her demeanour. Ranma sat on one knee beside her, his fists to the ground, like he was a knight of yore paying allegiance to a kind goddess.

"Well, that's settled then –" Soun stepped forward in relief, but Ranma wasn't done yet.

"But then you're my rightful fiancé."

And as the entire Tendo clan sans Kasumi broke into angry protests, Ranma let a small, hidden smile grace his features.

* * *

The boy had outdone himself this time, Genma thought in grudging satisfaction. He'd embraced the principal of Anything Goes in every sense of the word, and suddenly his friend was left floundering for words when Ranma had made his announcement.

The six of them had now relocated back to the living room, quenching the candles and leaving the empty dojo behind. Genma and his son were seated on one side of the table with the three Tendo girls on the other side; the patriarch of the house was seated at the head and was desperately trying to act as a mediator.

"Come now, son, surely you'd like Akane better?"

"I want nothing to do with that idiot!" Akane's own, vehement protest was so adequate that Ranma felt no need to add any words of his own.

"Come on, Akane," Nabiki tried to coerce her own sister into it as well. "The two of you are the closest in age. And think about our friend, the doctor."

Reminding Akane of her own, futile crush on Ono Tofu, who, in turn, had a crush on Kasumi, was possibly the worst move on her sister's part. The youngest Tendo only set her lips in a fierce pout and crossed her arms, making it quite clear that she would brook no further discussion.

"That settles it, then," Ranma said, looking inordinately pleased.

"It settles nothing!" Soun himself was a bit taken aback by the vehemence of his denial. "Saotome, you must explain to your son –"

"Well, he is well within his rights, Tendo," the gi-clad man answered. "She did, after all, manage to defeat him."

"That was no defeat! She won by forfeit!"

"Well I ain't marrying Akaru either, so you better be going somewhere with this, old man!"

"It's Akane, you idiot!"

"Yeah, yeah, like I care –"

"You _idiot!_"

"ENOUGH!" Soun bellowed, giving everybody in the room a look at his feared demon head technique. Satisfied that the dark-haired upstart had been scared out of his wits at least for the time being, he took several calming breaths and tried to get his temper back under control. "My son, Kasumi's a bit older than you –"

Ranma crossed his arms like Akane and did not deign to grace him with a reply.

This was spinning out of control, and fast. Out of all his daughters, Kasumi was the one he was least ready to see engaged. A small, dark corner of his mind told him that it was because the house would fall into disrepair without her, but he shoved that away for later consideration.

Even Genma seemed to be unmoving on this matter. Didn't he see that Akane was the obvious best choice?

"Nabiki, my dear, how about you?" he turned to the short-haired girl, hoping that she, at least, would listen to her dear old father's wishes.

"Not on your life, father."

"Now see here, young girl –"

"I still have those photos from last year's festival, father." Soun shut up sharpish. Genma, that rat bastard, suddenly looked much more interested in proceedings.

"Well, then," he had been backed into his corner, and he hastily bit back sobs of desperation. His dreams were crumbling into ashes before his eyes. "Ranma, my boy, can we speak in private for a bit?"

The boy in question raised his eyebrow in question, but gave a nod of agreement nonetheless, following the elder man out of the room.

"Well, I think I'll get started on dinner," for the first time since their 'fight', Kasumi spoke up. "You must be quite hungry, Saotome-ojisan."

She got up and made her way sedately towards the kitchen, when she suddenly heard quite voices coming from the room next door. That was where the shrine to their mother was maintained, and despite her best intentions, she couldn't control the urge to eavesdrop.

"Ranma, please try to understand," Soun was saying, in a tone more serious that she'd heard him use in a long time. "This was my last dream – _our_ last dream. I promised my wife on her deathbed that I'd see the two schools joined again, to see the dojo filled with students. I promised her that I'd take up teaching young ones alongside Genma again, and she died smiling only because I painted that picture for her as she passed on." Her father's voice had broken at the end, and her heart felt like it had frozen over when she heard him give a shaky sob.

Kasumi found that her hands were shaking slightly. Idly she felt the wetness on her own cheeks, but made no move to wipe it off.

"What would you have me do?" Ranma's voice was tight, controlled, and there was so much _venom_ in that simple question.

Soun flinched away at the young man's tone, but answered him nonetheless. "Marry Akane. A martial artist's life is fraught with perils; you and I both know this. Kasumi – Kasumi's not strong enough." Outside the door, unseen by both of them, the tall girl shied away like she'd just been slapped. "My eldest daughter is many things, Ranma, and a better human being than I ever dreamed of. Don't drag her into your fights and pains and sorrows. Akane is stubborn and resilient; she can offer you much, much more. Kasumi...she's not a warrior."

Ranma curled his lips in distaste. "And...that's it? You want me to marry the daughter I probably like the least, who insults me every time she even throws a punch and calls it Anything Goes?"

"Akane will improve," Soun looked into Ranma's eyes, finding no compassion in those stormy blue eyes. "It's inevitable, around a martial artist of your calibre. That's how you increased your skill, didn't you? I – I haven't been a good teacher to her, but I swear if you invest a little effort in her, you'll find a better partner than you could have ever asked for."

The boy was hesitating, Soun could see it. He hastened to strike while the iron was hot, dealing his trump card. "Fulfil the honour of both our families and the art, my son, and you'll never have to worry about a thing in your life. The Tendo family is old and steeped in heritage –"

"I don't need your fucking money!" Ranma couldn't believe this man who was grovelling before him. "How dare you bring up my honour in this matter? It's _your_ daughter who dishonours the art every time she walks into a dojo and pretends to be a martial artist."

"Then make her better! Prove that you can be a successful teacher, and I'll contact Happ - the Grandmaster, and see that you're made a Master alongside me and your father."

As much as he hated to admit it, that caught Ranma's interest. He had no interest in any of the daughters, truth be told, but the art was something that mattered to him.

"Listen to me," when he spoke again, his voice was low but throbbing with anger. "I don' like ya. Let me make this very clear. You couldn't do the honourable thing and allow me ta choose my own bride, like it's meant ta be, but you damn well keep this end of the deal, then. And you better be damn grateful that I have a shred of honour, unlike you, for even thinking to keep this agreement."

"So you agree?" Soun looked up hopefully, his moustache quivering at the idea to Akane and Ranma getting engaged and wed as fast as possible.

"Oh, but I got conditions, ol' man. One, you better hope that your daughter's ready to improve, and improve fast. Two, you will accept that it is ultimately _my_ decision to marry into this family, and the only reason I'm even considering this is because I know that this is what Pops wants as well, and because I love the art. And finally –"

"You should really teach your daughter that it's bad manners to listen in on private conversations!" Soun hadn't noticed the piece of wire appear in Ranma's hands, or seen the boy wrap it around the door and push. The screen slid away to reveal a startled Kasumi, her face tear-streaked and puffy.

For the first time, Ranma seemed to hesitate and show a bit of regret, but the emotion was gone just as easily as it had come.

"I – I – " Ranma was strangely pleased to see how the pleasant girl had finally lost her composure, and he reveled in being the cause of it for a few moments. And then he was striding past her without a backwards glance, back into the living room where the others were quite obviously waiting for them to reappear.

Ranma simply collected his pack from where Pop had placed it in the corner of the room, hoisting it over his shoulder. Both Kasumi and Soun had followed him back, but he paid no heed as their queries mixed in with that of the others.

He threw a careless glance left at his father. "You can stay here, old man," he said, making it quite clear that he was under no obligation to follow. "I'm out of here." It seemed that his words were redundant, though, because the fat lug had made no move to get up in the first place.

Ignoring the tiny pinprick of hurt that pierced his heart, Ranma pulled his shoes on, grimacing at how dirty and wet they were.

"It's raining outside, you idiot!" It was Akane's voice which was the loudest and finally caught his attention.

"Why, I'm glad you care, _fiancé_." And with that parting shot, he was out of the house, pleased to hear the outraged scream that followed his words.

The storm had petered out, but the rain was falling as heavily as ever. He was sodden within seconds. Ranma was glad for the weak glow of the streetlights as he walked away from the Tendo home, trying to find a place to spend the night.

But if he was walking away from his troubles, why did it feel like he had just been trapped in a cage?

* * *

**A/N: Akane's name means red/anger. Upped the rating to M, to include swearing. It's ironic, considering that the original manga itself should exclude any other ratings from the get-go.**


End file.
